Writing and Blogging

We have to face it â€“ not everyone who writes and maintains blogs is a writer. That does not mean, however, that only writers can come up with good blog posts. Although good blog posts do involve good writing, non-writers do not have to despair that they can never come up with a good blog post. In fact, I remember a comment I got from one reader â€“ â€œyou are a writer and not a blogger.â€

That threw me off balance like nothing else. I asked myself, what does he mean? Iâ€™ve always prided myself in being able to write decently. Now I was being told that I do not know what I was doing?

After the initial reaction, I delved much deeper into the context of the comment and realized several things while I was at it.

1. Blogging and writing arenâ€™t two different things. Neither are they the same. Writing is part of blogging. You need to have, at the very least, decent writing skills to come up with good content.

2. Writing style has a lot to do with your â€œblogginess.â€ Now I am sure I made up that word. What I mean is that there is a certain style or tone that some people associate with blogs. Friendly, conversational, personal â€“ these are a few words that I can think of to describe this expectation. As such, even if you think that you are a good writer, it doesnâ€™t mean that everyone will appreciate your well-written blog. This does not mean that you are not writing well, it merely means that you need to tweak your style to suit your readersâ€™ preference.

(to be continued)